Mastodon
Strangers offering unsolicited advice or derailing conversations should be familiar to all who use social media. In our new #Mastodon for Android update, we’re testing a new feature aimed to curb these behaviours:
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/11/improving-the-quality-of-conversations-on-mastodon/
Luka Rubinjoni
@Mastodon Well, actually...
Paul Houle
@Mastodon for every 1 "derailed conversation" I see 10 people who are offended that anybody defaces their masterpiece by replying to it.
People replying to themselves what what I think started X's descent into hell (the endpoint of that is that you don't need to have a blog, link to the rest of the net, ...) and I think would be must better to "just say no" to that behavior by prohibiting it
Derek Caelin is writing a book
"We also believe that by showing a bit of information about the person you’re about to talk to, we can prevent some awkward situations, such as explaining something to an expert in a given field."
I've seen this happen a few times, that could be really interesting.
pocket_
Connel Hooley
@Mastodon will the reminder be shown every time a user replies to the same stranger?
If so, I'm just wondering if 2 ignore options would be useful:
Don't remind me again
Don't remind me again for this user
Apologies if I'm misunderstanding the functionality.
Eugen Rochko
@connel @Mastodon The reminder is only displayed once per stranger. The second option disables the reminders altogether.
itsbrunog
@georgetakei They got you as an example.
Connel Hooley
@Gargron @Mastodon ah ok that makes sense, thanks for clarifying
🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 🐧 🥦
If you had a quick and interesting (obvious) thought about a topic chances are very good other people in the conversation did too.
Don't assume others have not.
Todd Alström
@Mastodon Nice. Looking forward to seeing where all of this goes and then seeing if I could apply something similar to our #BeerAdvocate Community #forums. #zombiethread #beer
Dana
Renaud Chaput
@b0rk This has been discussed but it requires backend / federation changes, so for now this is not customisable as it allows experimenting with the feature quickly.
If the results are good and we find the best form for this feature (it will most probably evolve), then we might do it.
Julia Evans
@Mastodon this is awesome, have you thought of letting people customize the prompt for folks replying to them? I think different folks have very different issues they seem in their replies
Tagomago
@Mastodon AKA the anti-reply guy feature.
Eugen Rochko
@qmacro @Mastodon If it's unclear, there's nothing actually preventing you from writing your reply. In fact, clicking "Got it" takes you to the compose screen. It only reminds you you're about to speak to someone who doesn't know you, and who they are.
DJ Adams
@Mastodon This is disappointing at best, and anti-community at worst. Spontaneous conversations are what makes the social part of the Web (and other parts of the Internet) great, and why we're here today.
If someone thinks that a person unknown to them, who replies or comments on something they post, is "a stranger offering unsolicited advice" in a negative way, then something is drastically wrong somewhere.
Healthcarer
@Mastodon So fresh insights on intractable problems are to be censored. That seems appropriate. Our betters do have things right usually and to interrupt their hegemony would be counter productive.
rticks
I CANNOT emphasise enough how much I dislike this popup and will book anyone who uses it
rticks
While soliciting feedback on this feature I would love to be able to add a note like on Fetlife such as "I blocked this person for using or supporting this feature"
rticks
Popup of Rudeness I could tolerate.
Tbis is just proof you need and do not have a Product Owner or are following Agile.
You might think you are but this feature is a lesson in Drvlelopers Doing UI
Ew.
Ew. Ew. Ew. EW!!!!!!!!
Time for a new Mastodon Client.
Do better.
With someone.slsd.
سیبزمینی
@Mastodon tbh I though it's gonna be some awful moderation thing, amd now every controversial thing youbsay will be banned or smth.
But this is a great solution.
Rae Patterson
I am finding some of the comments on this this thread so hilariously on-the-nose that it really makes me wonder whether the people who might benefit from these features are the ones who would never use them.
Eugen Rochko
@wikicliff @renchap @b0rk Well, that's a part of this feature. It's in the screenshot.
Clifford Adams
@renchap @b0rk Another idea to consider is showing the profile text of the person being replied to. There one could say things like "Read my FAQ before replying." or "Please no advice unless I specifically ask for it."
rexi
@Mastodon
hmmm. ought to be thought-provoking, alrighty. preliminary thumbs-up. #mastodon
gmsizemore
@Mastodon This seems like a really, really, really bad idea.
ungimmick
@Mastodon how is this a good idea? If you don't want to interact with strangers, you probably should just log off social media.
KewlCat
@Mastodon Can you display a second warning if the reply begins with "well actually"?
FeralRobots
@Mastodon 'tone policing as a feature' would probably make me move off Mastodon.
Annika Backstrom
@pmroman You're literally making the type of post this feature attempts to prevent @mattswift @Greengordon
mattswift
@pmroman @Greengordon @Mastodon Their own bio.
If someone's bio says something like "head of software engineering", it's probably not a good idea to try to "explain" something like git to them - they will 100% already know and it comes off as patronising.
Same if you try to "educate" someone on a topic like law, but actually they're already a lawyer, so your legal 101 is not helpful.
That's all it's about.
pmroman 🇪🇺
@mattswift @Greengordon @Mastodon I see, so a self-declared expertise as stated in their public bio. I don't like the idea, I think many people do not mention their expertise in their bio, for many different reasons. I worry we're making things too complicated attempting to resolve an issue I haven't seen mentioned in the time I been in Mastodon, but I reckon my knowledge is purely anecdotal.
pmroman 🇪🇺
@Greengordon @Mastodon The feature mentions warning us about the expertise of the person to whom we reply, how is the expertise established?
Greengordon
Nowhere does it say everyone will be verified, and nowhere does the new process discourage anyone from talking to strangers.
pmroman 🇪🇺
@Mastodon And who will certify, or verify, the expertise of each one of us? Besides, folks can talk without been experts, it's called conversation and I thought it was the purpose. Anyway, I forgot we shouldn't interact with people we don't know, my apologies :-)
🌼 Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 🌼
I like this part too 😂
"We also believe that by showing a bit of information about the person you’re about to talk to, we can prevent some awkward situations, such as explaining something to an expert in a given field."
pmroman 🇪🇺
@annika @mattswift @Greengordon Could you, please tell me why? this is something affecting all those of use using the app so me commenting is perfectly fine, I haven't been impolite nor disrespectful, I don't present my own anecdotal information as anything but anecdotal. Sorry, I don't understand your objections.
Annika Backstrom
@pmroman You've made a number of posts misrepresenting the feature while admitting you aren't even the target of the posts it's trying to mitigate. Not helpful.
Fardels Bear
Is it relevant that you're talking to a stranger when replying to a post? This is social media and the whole point is to interact with strangers. As to bios, I pay very little attention to them. Far more telling is what people actually post. It's as if you were at a party and handed out a CV to every guest. That wouldn't be a very good basis for interesting conversations, and the other guests would probably think you were a little weird.
Eric Redegeld
@Mastodon well reading all pro and cons. Make an on and off option then for the #mastoadmin
Joseph A. Langley
@Mastodon I fear this may reduce interactions further. I have already noticed a hesitancy to interact with others, and an additional step will only confirm and reinforce that hesitancy.
Also, and I'm not sure how to say this delicately, but if a person needs to be consistently reminded of appropriate behaviors, they may not follow that advice when it's offered.
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.